By Gareth If you’ve already approached a web-designer and asked them about prices, you’ll have already heard ‘What do you want it to do?’ Having thought about it and told them, you probably picked yourself up off the floor after they told you how much it will cost!
I’m not trying to put web designers out of business here. If you need an all singing, all dancing, visual extravaganza with fully functioning shopping cart, forum and blog with the minimum of fuss and you need your site to be unique in design and style, then you are probably going to have to pay them the rate they asked for (and if this is the case you would do well to approach Stylistic Web Design Ltd)!
If your initial thoughts are something a bit more basic; some static pages to get across key, useful bit of information about your company, who you are, what you do, maybe a blog, etc. then, if you are willing to do some reading and have a play about with technology, there are a couple of possible solutions for you.
You could use a What You See Is What You Get (WISIWYG) web-site development tool, such as FrontPage (2003 was the last version released, it was replaced by Expression Web) or Dream Weaver. These are off the shelf packages, similar to Word or Excel. They can be quite simple to use but the main downside is the cost. My quick internet comparisons put Expression Web at £150 and DreamWeaver at £250. They can also require a bit of technical know-how.
But another possible solution is Open Source Content Management. Sounds a right mouthful doesn’t it? But, in essence, it a framework onto which you can build. Being open source, means there are literally thousands of developers around the world working on improving and adding bits onto the basic package for free. They may be developing for their own needs but they make the fruits of their labour available to everyone.
Free doesn’t mean cheap and nasty looking either. There are a number of these Open Source Content Management systems out there. By far the most common is WordPress (found at www.wordpress.org/). They describe themselves like this;
“WordPress is a state-of-the-art publishing platform with a focus on aesthetics, web standards, and usability. WordPress is both free and priceless at the same time.”
WordPress is used by many leading organisations. Downing Street (www.number10.gov.uk/), CNN (business.blogs.cnn.com/), The Wall Street Journal (magazine.wsj.com) and Fox News (www.foxnews.com/opinion/index.html) all use it, so there must be something in it, right?
Many hosts may also include it as a ‘1-click’ install on your hosting package, greatly simplifying the install procedure and getting you up and running quickly.
You can download ‘themes’ to change the look and feel of the site and also ‘plug-ins’ to add or enhance functionality. Once you get a feel for it and if you are prepared to do a bit of reading and learning, you can edit these to ‘tweak’ them for your specific site or develop your own from scratch.
This site uses WordPress. It uses a ‘tweaked’ theme (the standard, free one wasn’t quite what Sara wanted…) and a number of additional plug-ins to control things like e-mail subscriptions, spam monitoring, Google Analytics and Search Engine Optimisation (SEO).
Total monetary cost to Sara – £0.00 – just a bit of time and (my!) effort.
A bespoke web site with similar functionality from a web designer? Somewhere in the region of £5-6000!
So hopefully the posts in this series have opened your eyes to how you can produce a web site for your business. At the end of the day the most difficult thing to come up with are ideas… that’s why professional web design studios cost so much…
If you would like Above Parr PA Services to help you create your web presence, contact Sara.
By Sara As you may know, 4Networking.biz is my personal favourite for Business Networking. Recently I listened to a presentation by Adrian Reynolds from a copywriting business called Millionth Monkey. The subject was “Adding 5%” and it was one of the most thought-provoking 4sights I have ever heard – I’ll try to do the concept justice…
We’ve all heard those people who claim to give “110%” but do we really believe that? Worse still, there are those that come up with figures of 500% or 1000% and that just sounds a bit silly really.
So being realistic, what about adding a measly 5% more effort to everything you do? Surely that’s manageable? Judging by the nodding heads everyone agreed!
Adrian then recalled a couple of examples of his previous few weeks of his life with this philosophy…
Walking through Nottingham he noticed an Indian restaurant that was advertising Full English Breakfast and — since this seemed to be a bit inconsistent in terms of their branding — he decided to be 5% more curious and pop in for a cup of tea. After chatting to the manager he discovered that they were looking for all sorts of ways to increase their business, and Adrian is now talking to them about using the rest of their building for conference and training facilities, and looking to host a networking evening there where participants will only pay for their starters and drinks.
Dashing to catch a tram (which he missed) he noticed that a lady had also missed it and, after the usual exchange of glance to acknowledge shared frustration, he struck up a conversation with her, deciding to be 5% more friendly. It emerged that her work as an actress was in the same general field as his (as a writer). They exchanged details and who knows? There may be some business from it at some point.
Think about this. Two things that could have a significant impact on his business success that have come directly from making 5% more effort in seemingly irrelevant circumstances. Imagine what impact that could have over time…
I would like to thank Adrian for not only allowing me to recount this and editing it for me, but for telling the stories in the first place! I’m really looking forward to hearing more from him at 4N and heartily recommend that you head over to Adrian’s Blog next!
By Gareth There are as many hosts as there are stars in the night sky! How can you choose one?
As with everything, the best one is probably a recommended one. If you haven’t got a recommendation then the internet can be a valuable resource as long as your research is structured. Jump on and type ‘web hosting’ into a search engine. For me that only returned 225 MILLION hits!
Look at a few pricing structures. Some will offer ‘Unlimited disk space’ (read file storage). Some will offer ‘Unlimited Bandwidth’ (read amount of data that can be transferred to/from your site). Some will offer packages that give a fixed amount of one or the other or both. There are price/option decisions to be made at this point, but most hosts should be flexible enough to allow you to swap pricing/features plan. Think about where you want your files hosted. They can be anywhere in the world. This is technology and everything is done remotely. In fact your host may well have never even seen the physical hardware they sell space on, or indeed, even own it!
But price isn’t everything. Think about the downsides as well. Low cost probably means that you are sharing a server, probably with 10s if not 100s of other companies. If one of those writes a bit of web code that isn’t very good, it may tie up your server, causing it to run slowly and take ages to present even the simplest of web sites to your visitor. Your host should be monitoring this kind of thing, but it’s reactive, you may have already missed that new customer because your site wouldn’t load before they get it fixed. It’s a trade off. At some point in time you may need some support. If the hosting company isn’t in your time zone then questions could take a while to answer. If the hosting company plans an upgrade ‘out-of-hours’ will it be out of your hours, or right in the middle of your prime web site viewing time? For these reasons alone it may be worth having your site hosted in your country if possible, not to mention language barriers (trust me, I manage a team split in the UK and India, language and custom is a much larger barrier than everyone says).
So, find a host, and then search for some reviews about them. Make an informed decision, but it’s not the end of the world if you have issues – you can move your web site quite easily between hosts. For your info Sara was introduced to her host through a networking event – TwentyHost, and is on their Shared UK Hosting Plan. It gives her site 150MB of storage space (including email storage, but this can me moved off-line), 2.25GB of Bandwidth/month and up to 25 unique email addresses, more than enough, for now.
Once you have your host – link them to your domain name using the DNS Lookup on your domain control panel. Your new host should have given you the names of their ‘Names Servers’, you need to enter these into your domain control panel ‘Names Servers’ section. As if by magic (well, over a couple of days – the internet is a big place you know and word needs to get around!) your domain name is linked to your hosted space.
In my final post in this series I’ll be looking at possible ways of creating some content for your new site.
If you would like Above Parr PA Services to help you create your web presence, contact Sara.
By Gareth In my second installment we’ll look at what you need to get started in the on-line world.
The first thing you’ll need is a ‘domain name’. This is your address on the internet, your ‘URL’. You know, ‘www.blahblahblah.com’ or ‘www.thingybob.co.uk’.
Think carefully about the two parts of the address, the ‘blahblahblah’ bit and the extension ‘.com’ or ‘.co.uk’ (or a multitude of others) it can reveal a lot about your company and it’s ambitions.
The first part would ideally be your company name, but the world is a big place and your address (or URL) may already be registered, either to another company with the same name or to someone who has registered the name in the hope of making a fast buck and selling it on at a profit. You may need to opt for an alternative. Sites where you register your domain name (for example I always use www.123-reg.co.uk/) will usually do a free search and list some alternatives if your first choice isn’t available.
For the extension, think about what you want to portray. ‘.com’ is usually seen as a big corporation or global company, think Microsoft.com or IBM.com. ‘.com’ extensions are relatively expensive however, about £10 per year. Country extensions, such as ‘.co.uk’ can prove far more cost effective about £3 per year. Some companies also like to use their extension to show the country they are located in, or a bit of patriotism (the BBC are at bbc.co.uk rather than bbc.com (although they do own bbc.com and it redirects to bbc.co.uk).
This brings me on to redirecting. You may have one site but want to have several routes into it. This is easily achievable. Now this alternate address isn’t important, but it’s worth thinking about if you web address may be typed incorrectly or maybe as something for a future marketing campaign. Try entering www.virtuallyeverythingdoneforyou.co.uk into your browser. What happens? You end up back here! a purchase for one of Sara’s marketing campaigns… This should all be handled by your host; I’ve not had to do anything ‘clever’ other than link the two addresses.
So, you have your web address(es) what next? You need a host, someone to hold all your web site files so they are available for everyone to see. My next entry will be about finding a host and some things to think about before you finally settle on one.
If you would like Above Parr PA Services to help you create your web presence, contact Sara.
By Gareth Well I MUST… everyone has one don’t they? My business will fail if I don’t…
Exclamations many a small business will have heard or thought.
OK, in this ever increasing tech-savvy world we live in, an online presence is useful. I can’t say it isn’t. With the right content it can answer many people’s basic questions about your business. It can also act as a marketing tool, a shop window, even a full shop, whatever time of the day or night, 7 days a week, 365 days a year.
Before I jump in to tell you what could make your life just that little bit easier when it comes to web sites, a little bit about me. I’ve been professionally involved in technology since I left University in 1993, as a programmer, a web-developer, a project manager and an IT consultant for small IT companies and global multinational corporations. I’ve worked for a number of clients, private and public sector, usually on long term projects.
For the last 10 or so years I’ve always jumped on the internet at the first opportunity to research anything and everything. When I moved from London to Nottingham in 1999 it would have been the perfect solution, but web sites were the Tech companies’ domain and sites like RightMove.com didn’t exist then. I ended up spending valuable ‘downtime’ away from home, trawling around estate agents, looking at house details and booking viewings… (I wish I’d had a PA back then!)
Now almost everyone uses the internet to research just about anything, from houses to holidays, from prices to PAs.
But how do I go about getting a web site? It’s really complex and expensive isn’t it?
It can be, but it doesn’t have to be. Over the next few postings I’ll list some options and outline some ‘tips and tricks’ that hopefully can spare you some heartache, but most importantly, for the small, start-up business, save some time and money.
If you would like Above Parr PA Services to help you create your web presence, contact Sara.
By Sara Not OUR business – we’re as busy as ever because even though Minky’s Village looks like it should be a venue for the Winter Olympics he can do the majority of his work anywhere! But here are just a few the issues raised over the last few days…
School’s Out
When the local schools close parents have to make provision for their children, which at short notice usually means Mum (or Dad) has to stay at home. Since women are often the ones who do the jobs that fit around the children, they are also often the one who carry out Administrative roles within a company (because they tend to be more flexible, though no less important). Even companies that don’t have a dedicated receptionist can suffer if the ‘phones aren’t being answered (or are being answered by people who don’t usually do it and perhaps don’t give the best first impression). Consider a professional answering service, even if only for emergencies – the expense of losing a great client (and trying to replace them) would far outweigh the cost. It’s true to say that they vary enormously, but if you’d like some advice then just let me know.
Other Key Staff Absence
There have been a few articles on this over the last few days regarding the legality of pay deductions and the impact on business, but with a little planning (perhaps for next time) you can minimise the disruption. Consider how your staff would be able to carry out work at home using technology such as LogMeIn (www.logmein.com) to access their work computer from home – it’s a bit slower than being in the office but they can at least do some work in between snowball fights!
Teams Working Together on Projects
Document sharing is easy using Google Docs, Huddle or one of the many other similar offerings. I personally use Dropbox on a regular basis, but I also use several other cloud-based options. Internet based CRM systems like Salesforce and Capsule mean that your sales team can work and update their records from home and if you use a cloud based accouting system such as Xero then even your FD can work without risking a dent in the company car!
Company vehicles in the snow
There are various issues here – your insurance premium rocketing after a bump is just one of them. As an employer you have a duty of care to protect and educate your staff and difficult driving conditions could leave you in real trouble of your vehicles aren’t up to it. Consider getting professional advice from somewhere such as Fleet Risk Consultants (www.fleetriskconsultants.co.uk) – Nigel has a no-nonsense and practical approach to the safety of your employees and it won’t cost you a fortune.
Client Meeting cancelled
Can you do it virtually? Skype (www.skype.com) has potential for a conference call as many people already have it and those that don’t can sign up easily. Skype to Skype calls are free and are of reasonable quality, particularly if you already know each other and just need to catch up.
Networking meeting cancelled
My networking organisation of choice (www.4networking.biz) are likely to have to cancel some of their meetings this week and I know some of the other networking organisations are in a similar position. Like many others I get nearly all of my business via networking and referrals, so the weather could have a significant impact on bringing in new business!
Online Forums and Social Networking
Such normally powerful tools are being swamped by users talking about the snow – is your message getting lost? It’s worth looking at your startegy and altering it a little if appropriate. Of course, if you happen to be in a business that’s relevant to the weather then intelligent use of hashtags and blog content could pay dividends…
I’m off to make some soup before Minky pinches all the carrots for his snowmen – Please feel free to add your own thoughts!
By Sara No, I’m not going to crack a dodgy joke about your mother’s mother…
I must admit, I am a little prickly on this one – the odd typo is one thing, but when an “expert” in their field can’t get their own technical terms right then surely we have to question both the education system and their own ability and standards. When their field of expertise is supposed to be administration, I really get worried – a surgeon with shaky hands perhaps shouldn’t be a surgeon, so should a VA with poor “English” (or any other language they choose to work in) be thinking about a career change? I was given a “stationary” price list today from a local printer – good thing too, I don’t want the thing running around the office!
Whenever you publish something with words in, whether on the web, in an email or in print you WILL be judged by the quality of the work. If it’s badly written with spelling mistakes and poor grammar then your business will appear to be unprofessional and shoddy. On the other hand, a piece that has clearly been prepared with care will portray you in a favourable manner and may well win you extra sales, especially if it gets read by someone like me!
I’m not perfect by any means and I certainly spot other people’s mistakes better than my own, but I know the difference between your and you’re, stationery and stationary, affect and effect. I could go on…
Is it because I’m getting old and crusty? When I was at school spelling, punctuation and grammar mattered in all subjects – if my Chemistry homework was factually correct but littered with spelling mistakes then it came back covered in red ink, usually accompanied with a “See me” comment. However, my two stepsons, who I don’t think are classed as being anything other than pretty average are, in my opinion, rubbish at spelling and nobody seems to think it’s an issue! So perhaps I am being too hard – after all, if nobody tells you how to use an apostrophe then I suppose it’s all downhill from there really.
By Sara Minky has been out and about quite a bit recently which is why it’s been a bit quiet on here!
The other day he said to me that the lyrics of a song he’d heard described networking perfectly for him – Start, by The Jam.
Now, it has to be said that Minky isn’t a big fan of networking and sometimes feels a bit intimidated when he’s in a room full of strangers – which might explain why this song stood out for him. But he asked for some advice on why he isn’t as successful at it as he’d like to be so we used his feelings about this song to try and help…
It’s not important for you to know my name -
Nor I to know yours
If you don’t know who you are talking to then how can you know what to say to them? If they don’t know who you are then how are they going to remember you? Prepare a 20 second introduction about what you do – practice it and be comfortable with it. You don’t need to tell everything you do, just enough to prompt some interest!
If we communicate for two minutes only
It will be enough
Of course an initial conversation breaks the ice, but in order to build up trust and understanding you need to develop a relationship. If you feel that you can potentially work with someone then why not suggest a coffee at another time? It stops you feeling pressurised about your “pitch” and the more relaxed atmosphere will help you both formulate ideas of how you can work together.
For knowing that someone in this world
Feels as desperate as me -
Now whilst I wouldn’t personally use the word “Desperate” I think it’s fair to say that there are a lot of people who are uncomfortable with networking. But Gareth said at his first networking event “It’s just people talking to each other – what’s the fuss all about?” and to an extent he’s right! Don’t try to sell, just talk to people and get to know them. Networking shouldn’t be torture for anybody… including your audience!
And what you give is what you get.
Now, I’m with him all the way on this bit – whether you prefer the “Giver’s gain” of BNI or the “Meet, Like, Know, Trust” of 4Networking, the concept is solid. Be open, honest and generous and the rewards will come back by the bucketload!
If you would like some help on developing your networking skills then contact us – we know some great networkers who will be happy to help you – and if you would like to come and see what 4Networking is all about, drop Sara an email.
By Sara OK, so this has taken a lot more than an hour – but it’s something pretty special…
We’ve been really busy for the last few weeks, organising the Denby House Open Day on 11th September – a FREE networking event to celebrate the official opening of the business centre and the rebranding of space4work.com but we’re pretty much sorted – we can still squeeze a few more people in so if you would like to attend then send me an email.
Space4work provides flexible business accommodation offering easy in/out terms, plus a range of virtual business addresses including Denby House – which is where my office is. The new website allows businesses to choose their virtual office packages online so that they only pay for what they need – much like when they use us!
I’m not the sentimental sort, but I can honestly say that the support we’ve received from Director Alan Woolley has been fundamental to the speed with which our business has developed, so when he asked us to organise his event for him we were happy to agree.
Minky is very excited about meeting so many local business people and can hardly wait. He’s been tidying the office for days and keeps checking our list of nibbles to make sure we have enough nuts! He’s also looking forward to meeting George Cowcher when he officially opens the building at 11.30am – we have a feeling he’s going to try really hard to get his picture taken with him…
By Sara Minky is on holiday this week and he really needs a break. Mrs M has told him that if he takes his laptop it will be going in the pool, so we are looking after his business for him for the week. These are just some of the things we are doing to make sure he gets a well deserved rest.
- taking his phone calls for him
- responding to any enquiries from new clients, so that they get a professional first impression
- booking appointments for him ready for when he’s back
- chasing his customers for payment
- sending out a marketing email
- updating his blog
So, while he’s monkeying around on the beach, his business is ticking along without him.
You will always be the best person to run your business, but could we do this for you for a few days so you can recharge your batteries? Just drop us an email…
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